University of Minnesota disability services employee Scott Marshall writes in the Star Tribune how the U could avoid paying its top execs extravagant retirement payouts:

Short of stopping the practice of paying administrators anything at all when their job responsibilities are done, how about this: When a university administrator leaves her position, the university pays that person the wage of the lowest-paid union worker on campus?

That would give the person a year to “retool” (or leave) at a wage that university administrators seem to think is acceptable for 2,080 hours of work.

If it’s enough for an employee with real responsibilities to Goldy, then surely it’s enough for someone without formal responsibility who is spending their time retooling for whatever is next.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.